Limerick supervisors discuss expanding sewer hook-up deal

LIMERICK — Township supervisors recently discussed the possible modification of a resolution that cuts a deal for new hook-ups to the municipal water system once new residences are constructed and operational.

Township Manager Dan Kerr told the supervisors last week that the deal was already on the books due to a 2010 ordinance.

“It basically provided for installment payments of up to four years if the individual in the on-lot sewer system has to connect with the township public sewer system,” Kerr said.

In that ordinance, the township would allow for the resident to pay 25 percent of the hook-up fees “up-front,” Kerr explained, and then pay 25 percent in each of the next three years.

Kerr brought up the ordinance at last Tuesday’s meeting because more projects are due to come into the township which would require connecting to the township sewer system. Additionally, the potential of extending the offer to owners of multiple buildings is possible.

As it stands now, the ordinance applies to “single-owner occupied buildings.”

“A few have come back and said, ‘Listen, I have more than one EDU on my property.’ And they have asked us if we could ask the board if you would consider extending this policy to a property with more than one EDU,” Kerr said.

Supervisor Joseph St. Pedro was cautious about extending the ordinance.

“If somebody has a property and he’s living in one and has got two other dwellings, to me, it’s a business. You collect the rent and you pay for the EDUs,” St. Pedro said. “It’s not like one person living in the house: that piece of property (in that case) is not producing any income, versus the other pieces of property that gets an income.”

Overall, St. Pedro support the hook-up fee extension but has concerns beyond the dwelling of the applicant.

“I’m all for helping the one owner,” he said. “But if he’s got three dwellings, the other two, we can’t do that because then you’re going to have every builder who comes with 20 say, ‘I need 20 EDUs, finance me for 10 years.’ You’re opening a can of worms.”

Ken Sperring and Kara Shuler, both supervisors, expressed that they’d like to look at the issue further and get more information on all the different options before they make a decision on whether to extend the deal.